Are you thinking of purchasing a budget friendly device that could help you do multi taking as well as not go heavy on your pockets too? Well, here is a nice little Smartphone that carries a fresh look both on the exterior as well as interiors. With Smartphones that travel a dime several times, you always risk of making it hear like a patronizing pat. The Nokia Asha 501 is way better than that. Of course, it is an entry level pack. An economical, dual SIM phone that completely fits in the Asha description! However, it features a new touch-screen dumb phone perception- with respect to the industrial design and software.
Speaking of the design of the phone, it forms to be the strongest point of Asha 501 as the device brings the Lumia body language ahead with same vibrant colours and single body like built quality. It is small and unique in looks. It can easily be held in the palm thereby stating, it is a pocket size phone. The primary SIM of the user is affixed behind the battery while the secondary SIM slot is placed to the right of the battery. The secondary SIM can be changed even when the phone is running. With an extra responsive touchscreen, and amazing display, the phone is a great pick. However, the keypad is small and large smartphone users may need to make multiple attempts to get a hit right.
Display
The Asha 501 features a LCD display of 3inches with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels with 262k colours. The low resolution reduces the pixel density of the phone thereby bringing it to 133ppi. Though the colours on the screen are contrasted and bright but the display still looks a bit dim.
Operating System
Yes, somehow the operating system will make you think of Symbian, but it is way different now as you can dispose any app by just swiping from left to right. The home screen features all the apps and displays the reminders and messages as well music player and recent mails. The device tries its best to picture itself as a Smartphone and offers you access to Facebook, G-talk, Twitter and all your mail. The availability of Nokia Ovi Store allows you to download apps in seconds. A great addition is the Xpress Browser that compresses the size of the page to diminish the data usage and make the content look good in your face. Thus, those people who purchase Nokia 501 will be using a phone browser for the very first time.
With a processor of 1GHz and 64MB of RAM along with an internal memory of 128MB and external memory of 4GB with an expansion of MicroSD card slot, the phone is a decent option.
Camera, Games and Music
The music sound and quality on the speaker is good and of high quality though you can also sense it on the back of the device. However, there is no Music Store. The camera doesn’t need a special mention here as it is just normal. The day light pictures are good and impressive enough to be used on your social network profiles but dim light ones are not at all good. The phone features a 3.2MP primary camera for taking pictures. The video recording happens at a very low resolution of 240p and a low frame rate of 14fps and the video capture is of very low quality.
The phone features Asphalt games that come pre-installed in the game and the touchscreen offers graphics and responsiveness. However, it is a Java game and in no way can be compared to the Android game version. The phone features many other pre-loaded games.
Battery
The Nokia Asha 501 comes decked with 1200mAh battery delivering up to 17 hours of battery backup with a decent usage. To save battery, the device uses Glance screen feature to check the time is even when the phone gets locked. Once the phone is unlocked, there are two major panels, the Fastlane and Home. Home works as an app drawer. Everything goes smooth and there is no sign of lagging in the major menu.
The on screen keyboard works amazingly well and even the three-inch display offer a complete QWERTY keyboard to the users even in the portrait version. However, if you are wondering about the functionality limit of the phone, it comes with a built-in mail, music players, gallery, calendar, organiser, internet browser and Twitter and Facebook apps.
Dual SIM Features
The dual version 501 uses two Micro-SIM cars with dual stand-by, which means that while you use one SIM, the other SIM is not active. You can wither swipe from above and click on the dual SIM panel and visit settings and choose Dual SIM. It also offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Wi Fi connectivity. The phone lacks cellular connectivity and GPS connectivity. The device is limited to 2G EDGE Data and so the browsing is not so fast, but as it is a web centric phone, the pages open fast and you can go for multi-tasking too.
Verdict
The phone is a best purchase for those who are looking for a budget friendly Smartphone. At the price it is being offered, it is the best touchscreen phone. As Android brings in cheap hardware, a phone which is already running on an optimized platform is way better and will be a better bet for the budgeted smartphone purchasers. It will surely satisfy the entry level smartphone customers as it has genuinely been designed for the masses. Thus, the phone is a great yes for those who wish to create a smartphone market for them. With expandable memory excellent loudspeaker performance and FM radio with RDS running on Nokia Asha 501 software platforms 1.0 is a great purchase. Priced at INR 4900, the phone is almost within the reach of every budget friendly person. So, what are you waiting for? Grab this offer and enjoy one of the best gifts from Nokia to its customers. Surely, a gift worth cherishing!
